3.24.2010

I have a fifth grade advisory every morning with a small group of wonderful students. Each morning is spent cultivating our interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences. While the advisory class itself is not an art class, we take full advantage of the art room! For example, we recently did a blind contour drawing portrait project. It was really lovely to see each of them handle the intimacy of drawing their classmate- staring and drawing/following every contour line of their facial features!

Because these are blind contour drawings it took the pressure off of trying to make their portrait look realistic and we had so much fun with the expressive and free lines. The rules are: no looking at the paper, do not lift the pencil and try to use one continuous line, follow the contour lines of your subject slowly as you draw along, and have no fear!

3.18.2010

The kindergarten artists have been creating textile art! These pinecone weavings are a wonderful way to introduce the ancient art of weaving.

We talked about the spiral pattern found in the pinecone and how to use our "naturalist intelligence" in art. I showed them examples of weavings and talked about the warp and weft found in most of our clothes. They did a very simple up and down, over and under movement through the pinecone with their choice of different yarn plies and colors.

This was also a great way to observe each student's natural inclination to help me better understand what kind of artist they are- some pinecone weavings ended up being very technical, some wild and crazy, and all of them beautiful!